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1/23/26 Last night, I dreamed a dream. As always in the Land of Nod (the mythical land of dreams, NOT the Bible’s place of anguished exile), time, age, and location were all mixed up and confused, mixing high school, college, and grown-up life into a slurry of dreamland reality. I dreamed Becoming Super Rog was being published, and I received a box full of book copies, plus galley sheets for me to make changes. BACK TO NOW For as long as I can remember, I dreamed of being a writer. I also dreamed of being the smartest (Einstein), strongest (Hercules), and funniest (Jerry Lewis) human alive, who ever lived, and who would ever live. So imagine my disappointment to be, instead, an old, fat, bald man, weaker than ever, struggling with mobility issues. But neither oldness, fatness, baldness, nor weakness has deterred me from dreaming my writer dreams. I’m incorrigible. Somehow, during my endless hours of viewing writing tips on YouTube — sometimes wizened writers, sometimes what appear to be children making a writing video during their school lunch break — I stumbled onto Wendy Dale. Not literally. I did not crush her. She’s fine. Wendy wrote a book: The Memoir Engineering System — Make Your First Draft Your Final Draft. There was a lot I liked about Wendy’s book: Wendy addresses memoir writing specifically. Wendy tells you what you need to do and why. Wendy teaches Principles, not formulas. Wendy focuses on: STRUCTURE.
Structure, believe it or not, has never been my strength. I’m more of the “Short story long” school. So the promise of structure was alluring — a powerful attraction. Wendy delivered. I subscribed to her YouTube channel, watched a shit-ton (official dairy farm weight) of her videos, and ended up commenting, even emailing her, my high praise. Wendy replied (which I never expected) and offered her free course: 7 Steps to Structure. I’m more familiar with 12-step programs. It was fantastic! And a “gateway” drug. Because then, Wendy tried to lure me into her 12-month Engineer Your Memoir
program, complete with Personalized coaching on my memoir. Well, since you already know me so well, you can guess … I bit. Hook, line, and sinker. So wish me luck as I continue my long, twisty-turny journey towards dream fulfillment. And I hope all YOUR dreams come true. P.S. In lieu of flowers or gifts, send cold, hard cash.
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